Chapter 26
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Ciara was melting to the core-her daughter just met her own father! Though Cara has no idea it was her father, Ciara could see how Cara seems invested in knowing Callum and paying attention to him because she smelled to him the scent that she could smell to her mother that came from the one pursuing her which Callum has sincerely admitted as well.
But then, when she suddenly remembered that Shane was also in the mall, she slowly realized that something might be going on.
Ciara pulled Cara a bit, almost wanting to hide her from her behind, and Callum noticed it. He lifted his head and looked at Ciara, whose expression of sudden guard flashed through her face. She looked worried and territorial.
Cara slowly stood behind her mother again, but this time she was tilting her head curiously and looking at the man who now stood and looked at Ciara.
“You’re here,” he said.
“We shopped and…ate,” Ciara explained as she looked at her car
Callum licked her lip and nodded. Ciara, who wanted to know what he was doing there and wanted to hear from him the reason, eagerly uttered the question that lingered in her mind.
“And how about you? What are you doing here?” she asked.
“Oh, … Callum licked his lips and looked at Ciara. “I was supposed to meet with someone,
but…
Someone. It’s Shane. I knew it. They’re still communicating. And Callum might be getting my trust for Shane’s sake. What? He wanted to take revenge for what happened to that woman. Is that it? And because he found out that I have a daughter….
“Are you okay?” Callum asked concernedly as he caressed her elbow when he noticed that she looked tense.
Ciara nodded and pulled her elbow away. Callum was a bit shocked that he could feel the sudden distance Ciara was giving him. She looked so heavily guarded by herself again that even the way she looked at him vividly expressed the distance she wanted for the both of them at that moment.
“I gotta go,” Ciara said.
Callum’s brows knitted as Ciara walked past him while pulling her daughter, who was glancing at Callum. He smiled and waved to Cara, who smiled back and waved as well.
Ciara didn’t even look back as she pressed the car alarm and slipped her daughter first into the back seat, then into her driver’s seat right away.
The boundaries Ciara has lowered are now suddenly rising up as she is slowly questioning whether she did the right thing by giving Callum the chance to know her.
Of course, Ciara. If Callum got your attention, you’d fall for him and you might get hard at pulling yourself up again. So better yet, guard yourself instead of falling so deep!
And knowing that Shane traumatized my daughter, I will never let that woman show herself in front of my daughter again! She is violent. Worse, she might come up with something that would harm my daughter.
“You’re what?” Mrs. Sullivan’s brow knitted as soon as Ciara opened up her plan.
“You’re going back to Paris?” Mrs. Sullivan clarified.
“I realized that my life there is way more fine compared to here, Mom. It’s just that Cara has grown up there. She likes the environment. And we were used to living there.
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Mrs. Sullivan dropped her utensils and looked at
Ciara worriedly.
“Did something happen? Maybe we could do something about it Ciara. How about your position in the company? You were making a good start. And I wanted more time with Cara. She seems to be enjoying herself here.”
Ciara paused for a while as she caressed her forehead. She wasn’t used to Cara being nervous or afraid of something. And
violence in front of her , she witnessed it. Worse, her daughter looked so traumatized that, for the first time, she had se
eyes.
“Should I call Gwen to confirm it? Or you’re going to tell me? What happened?” Mrs. Sullivan asked eagerly, as she could not set it aside knowing that it involved her granddaughter.
“There was a woman who showed up from my past, which brought fear to Cara earlier and made her traumatized. The last word hardened as the anger mingled with it.
“What?” Mrs. Sullivan stood.
Cara was already resting in the room as she fell asleep early, and Ciara went down to drink some water when her mother was still in the kitchen, so she joined her at the table to talk about her sudden decision. And now that she has told her the main reason for her decision, she knows that she wasn’t overreacting about Cara’s safety because even her mother looked mad.
“It was also the main reason why I can’t introduce her to her father because there was this woman who’s mad at me. S wants Cara’s father. If I introduced Callum to Cara, and Cara would find out that the woman is related to Callum, I do know what would happen. And worst, for sure, if that woman found out that Callum is involving himself with me again might hurt my daughter against me, Mom. I don’t want it to happen.”
Then why are you going to fly out to Paris if we could charge that woman right away? Our security is much tighter than anyone else, Ciara. She cannot touch you, or your daughter. Show them that they cannot touch you. Show them who you really are so they would fear messing up with you. That way, she would be her place and know who she’s messing with.”
Ciara was so worried that she didn’t even answer Callum’s calls and reply to his texts earlier. She doesn’t want to talk to him for a bit while her mind is on hold.
“Think about your decision thoroughly. If you want to go back to Paris, we won’t stop you. But think about it thoroughly. Ciara. Don’t just leave things behind. The years might pass again, but what you’ve left will always haunt you because you didn’t face it.”
And there, it struck her. She was so shocked by what happened earlier that she thought the solution was to leave right away, as she didn’t want her daughter to experience it again.
But then, it was also her own fear that she had escaped from the past, which is why she went to Paris. It wasn’t because she wanted a peaceful life; it was because she wanted to leave everything behind that she thought she couldn’t face or didn’t
want to face.
And her mother is right. She was just running from something that would haunt her again and again. And now that the ghost from the past was coming back, she was so afraid of repeating the cycle that she would rather leave instead of breaking
She tried to give herself some chance to think about it more thoroughly, but at the same time, she wanted to tell her family about what happened because she knew they all needed to know the truth behind the escape she made.
“If the princess called for a family meeting, no one must be too busy not to attend it,” Chance chuckled when he took the seat while everyone was waiting for her.
They would always gather in their mansion dressed in all tuxedos, as it showed how they were in the middle of dealing with something business-related, which they just ditched for the so-called family meeting.
“I have an important announcement to make,” Ciara said as everyone immediately listened; even her father looked at her seriously.
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Chapter 26
Gwen was just on the side, carefully listening, as she was always invited to the Sullivan’s family gatherings because she took an important part in maintaining what they wanted or setting up new rules to fit into the family’s new set of rules.
“Last time, I took Cara to the mall. Unfortunately, we stumbled upon a familiar woman past as… that wife of the man whom Cara’s father is.”
“So you really married that piece of shit,” Louis said in his cold voice.
someone who knows me from the
Mr. Sullivan licked his lower lip and leaned against the chair as he glanced at his wife, who was listening carefully as well. They have an idea that Ciara will finally reveal her past, which she has been hiding from them for how many years?
“Yes, I married him on paper. It’s actually business-related that’s what he offered, but I married him because… I like him.”
Chance’s expression, including Serra’s, was just too obvious not to notice, as they both couldn’t stifle their smiles, unlike Louis, who was wearing his strict expression.
“Unfortunately, I filed for divorce because a woman-his first love-came into the picture. She accused me of pushing her, resulting in her miscarriage. But I didn’t push her. She was so obsessed with Cara’s father that she was willing to ruin my image for him.”
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